I have to confess that President Trump's decision to withdraw Elise Stefanik as his UN Ambassador gave me a bit of a smile.
Stefanik is among the few Republicans who were willing to echo Trump's claims the J6ers were "hostages". Even Marjorie Taylor-Greene wasn't willing to go there.
The J6ers are not now and never have been hostages. They received due process and were never in any danger of being raped or murdered unlike those who are still being held in captivity by Hamas.
Yet no doubt this incendiary language caught Trump's attention, and he rewarded Stefanik with an ambassadorship, or so she thought.
With Republicans possibly losing seats previously held by Matt Gaetz and the Signal-gate instigator Mike Waltz, Trump decided he needed her in Congress after all with the slimmest of Republican majorities in the House of Representatives.
Evidently, the thought of being stuck in Congress was enough for Stefanik to beg and plead with Trump to reconsider to no avail. Stefanik has now learned the hard lesson that loyalty to Trump is a one-way street and she just got run over. As Charles Pierce quipped in Esquire, "I wish I could say that Stefanik didn't deserve to be treated like a doormat but, damn, did she deserve to be treated like a doormat."
It isn't to say that Stefanik couldn't be part of Trump's orbit again soon. Perhaps there will soon be an opening at the National Security Advisor post or in DoD.
With that said, it will be interesting to see who Trump nominates to be his new UN Ambassador. Since it won't be a Republican member of Congress then perhaps it will be a Democrat like Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman who has been downright chummy with Trump these days and who Democrats might not be so enthusiastic about renominating in 2026. Yet Fetterman has managed to show his concern about hostages being held by Hamas while not calling J6ers the same.
Then again, Fetterman might not want to get too close with Trump like Stefanik did.
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